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Wednesday

Jesus Was Angry... We Should Know Why

Mark 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,

The word anger appears 234 times in the Bible, but only once concerning Jesus. He was angry with a specific group of people, on the Sabbath, in a synagogue. There was extreme tension in that room, and it was deliberately caused by Jesus.

It seems he stood in full view of the audience with anger clearly visible on His face. Then he looked directly into the face of person after person to make sure they were sure of His displeasure with them. Luke said their response to this was “they were filled with madness;” Luke 6:11

The people He was angry with were the most disciplined, knowledgeable, and conservative in the audience. They were the watchers… we saw them in the last chapter, and will see them more often in the Gospels as the days grow darker. They watched Jesus and His disciples for any variance from the accepted Jewish standards of behavior.

In this particular instance they were critically watching to see if He would heal a suffering person on the Sabbath day. This is what made Jesus angry. Human religion had so hardened their hearts that they couldn’t feel the tenderness of God’s heart. And here they were, opposing Him in a building built to worship and talk about Him. How many times over the years had these people, in this place, heard about the Messiah... and here He was...

His anger should still the souls of all who claim to be His followers. It should cause us to check and re-check what we are about. It should cause us to critically assess the path of our journey to make sure we didn't leave His path somewhere. It is easy to get off that path... religion looks so right sometimes, but it can turn out so wrong. So wrong it could put us on the angry side of Jesus. Not a place I want to be.

I must ever be sure it is the living Christ I am following. I must know Him as the center and sum of my faith. I must tell you that I am more afraid of religion than I am the world. The paths of religion are closer to the path I follow, and, therefore, more dangerous.

Jesus' path, in this case, should be easily recognized by those who know Him. It is the path of mercy, that's the path He always seems to take. Mercy exalts justice and love at the same time. It is mercy that first put me on this path, and it is mercy that has kept me here... so I shouldn't be surprised that this is the path He chose.